Bbc revisewise ks3

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📷
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/science/chemical_material_behavioucompounds_mixtures/activity/
For example... the one that used to be here.
Seems like the disappeared a few years ago (flash based)... yet you can play flash games with elmedia player.
games about things like mixing liquids and another about circuits..i tried on flashpoint but i cant seem to find it there

📷
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/science/chemical_material_behavioucompounds_mixtures/activity/
For example... the one that used to be here.
Seems like the disappeared a few years ago (flash based)... yet you can play flash games with elmedia player.

Hello guys, I've switched schools, and my new school follows the British teaching standards for KS3 Science. I'm struggling with resources.
When I was teaching the American curriculum, I used to rely on:

1. Generation Genius
2. Kesler Science
3. Amplify Science
4. Legends of Learning

Even though, there is a big overlap between the American and British curricula, I'm looking for something that would help me fill in the gaps and teach the British curriculum better. So far, I've found:

1. BBC Bitesize (https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zng4d2p) - must be in the UK to access, so I cannot use it
2. https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/aqa-activate-1-and-2-ks3-science-bundle-12738211 - seems solid, haven't purchased the whole thing, and not sure what would be the best way to utilize it. Seems like the slides include a LOT of reading, but it might be a good start

That's it, only those two. Do you guys know about anything else? Ideally something more digital, just like the resources above, but I would also appreciate recommendations for any workbooks/textbooks worth buying.
Thanks a lot, guys!
A confused teacher

Hello guys, I've switched schools, and my new school follows the British teaching standards for KS3 Science. I'm struggling with resources.
When I was teaching the American curriculum, I used to rely on:

1. Generation Genius
2. Kesler Science
3. Amplify Science
4. Legends of Learning

Even though, there is a big overlap between the American and British curricula, I'm looking for something that would help me fill in the gaps and teach the British curriculum better. So far, I've found:

1. BBC Bitesize (https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zng4d2p) - must be in the UK to access, so I cannot use it
2. https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/aqa-activate-1-and-2-ks3-science-bundle-12738211 - seems solid, haven't purchased the whole thing, and not sure what would be the best way to utilize it. Seems like the slides include a LOT of reading, but it might be a good start

That's it, only those two. Do you guys know about anything else? Ideally something more digital, just like the resources above, but I would also appreciate recommendations for any workbooks/textbooks worth buying.
Thanks a lot, guys!
A confused teacher

Anniversaries are how we mark the passage time of time, celebrate our triumphs, and honor our losses. Two thousand and fourteen witnessed several significant historical anniversaries: the centennial of the start of World War I, the bicentennial of the British sack of Washington, DC, and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, to name a few. Two thousand and fifteen will also see anniversaries of many significant events in world history. Here are ten of note:
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s Release from Prison, February 11, 1990. Nelson Mandela’s journey to becoming the first black president of South Africa was a long one. Trained as a lawyer, he became a prominent anti-apartheid activist in the 1950s as a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and a founder of the ANC Youth League. When Pretoria banned the ANC in 1960, Mandela turned to armed resistance. In 1962, he was arrested and convicted of plotting to overthrow the government. He was sent to Robben Island prison, where he was forced to work at hard labor in a limestone quarry and allowed to receive one visitor and one letter every six months. Despite his imprisonment, Mandela’s fame as a symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle grew. After twenty-seven years behind bars, eighteen of which he spent at Robben Island, Mandela was finally released on February 11, 1990 by the new government of Frederik Willem de Klerk. Mandela then worked with De Klerk to dismantle the apartheid system. The two men were awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for their work. In 1994, South Africans elected Mandela president. He died in 2013, leaving behind a legacy that few others can match.
More on:
Global
Fiftieth Anniversary of the Arrival of the First U.S. Combat Troops in South Vietnam, March 8, 1965. In 1960, the United States had roughly 750 military advisors in South Vietnam; by 1964, the number had grown to 16,000. The increased effort did little, however, to stem to the Viet Cong insurgency. In August 1964, Congress [authorized the use of force](mailto:http://blogs.cfr.org/lindsay/2014/08/07/twe-remembers-congress-passes-the-gulf-of-tonkin-resolution/) against North Vietnam in the wake of a purported [attack on U.S. destroyers](mailto:http://blogs.cfr.org/lindsay/2014/08/04/twe-remembers-the-gulf-of-tonkin-incident/) in the Gulf of Tonkin. After deadly Viet Cong attacks on U.S. military facilities in South Vietnam in early February 1965, President Lyndon Johnson ordered the dispatch of the first U.S. combat troops to South Vietnam. On March 8, the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade arrived in South Vietnam to protect the U.S. airbase at Da Nang, which was instrumental in Operation Rolling Thunder, the large-scale bombing campaign against North Vietnam that the U.S. had launched just days earlier and which would last until November 1968. The decision to send the marines to Da Nang broke the taboo on combat troops. By the end of 1965, the United States had 184,300 troops in South Vietnam. The rapid U.S. military escalation came with a bitter historical irony. Five months before the marines hit the beaches of Da Nang, President Johnson had insisted: “We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.”
Fortieth Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, April 30, 1975. America’s involvement in Vietnam began with great optimism about what U.S. military power could achieve. It ended with the country deeply divided and doubting its place in the world. President Richard Nixon had attempted to bring “peace with honor” through a January 1973 peace deal with North Vietnam that (among other things) traded the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces for the release of American prisoners of war. The agreement did not, however, end the fighting between the North and South. In early 1975, North Vietnam launched a major military offensive. South Vietnamese forces quickly retreated. Many South Vietnamese civilians fled their homes as well, trying to find safety in what became known as the “convoy of tears.” By the end of April, the North Vietnamese had closed in on Saigon, South Vietnam’s capital. On April 29, the United States launched Operation Frequent Wind, a helicopter evacuation of the Americans remaining in the city. By the next day, all American military and diplomatic personnel had left Vietnam, taking many “at risk” South Vietnamese with them—and leaving many more behind. More than 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam War. You can find all of their names inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.
Centennial of the Sinking of the Lusitania, May 7, 1915. The 1,959 passengers on board the RMS Lusitania were looking forward to the end of their week-long voyage from New York City as the luxurious British ocean liner rounded southern Ireland on its way to Liverpool early on the afternoon on May 7, 1915. But the ship never reached port. A dozen miles off Old Head of Kinsale, a German U-boat lay waiting. The submarine fired one of its two remaining torpedoes. It scored a direct hit. The Lusitania sank in just eighteen minutes; nearly 1,200 passengers, including 128 Americans, died. (Why the Lusitania sank so quickly is disputed.) The sinking created an international uproar. President Woodrow Wilson saw the attack as a barbarous violation of the freedom of the seas. But he was unwilling to abandon his policy of neutrality toward the war in Europe, and he knew that Congress would not vote for war in any event. So he contented himself by filing three protest notes with the German government. (Even that step was too much for Wilson’s pacifist secretary of state, William Jennings Bryan; he resigned in protest after the first note.) Berlin insisted that the Lusitania’s sinking was justified because Germany had published notices in the American press warning passengers that they traveled on allied ships “at their own risk” and because the Lusitania was carrying weapons. (The Lusitania’s precise cargo has been a matter of controversy; by one account it was carrying more than 170 tons of ammunition.) Berlin eventually agreed to suspend its attacks without warning on passenger ships. Although the sinking of the Lusitania did not prompt the United States to enter World War I—that would not happen for another two years and only after Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare—the incident convinced many Americans that Germany was the villain in the Great War.
Octocentennial of the Magna Carta, June 15, 1215. Americans are proud of their constitution. And rightly so. But the U.S. Constitution owes a large debt to a document written more than five centuries earlier, England’s Magna Carta. The story of “the Great Charter” begins in feudal England with a tax hike. King John needed money to raise an army that could win back territory he had lost in France. His tax plan angered a group of forty barons already unhappy with his seizure of their lands and infringement on their feudal and judicial rights. They presented the king with their demands. He turned them down flat. The barons rebelled. They renounced their allegiance to the crown and seized the Tower of London. Faced with a budding insurrection that might topple his rule, King John opted to negotiate. The result was the Magna Carta, which he signed at Runnymede on June 15, 1215. In exchange for John’s concessions, the barons pledged their allegiance to him once more. Most of the specific provisions of the Magna Carta address feudal concerns of no interest today. But the Magna Carta’s contribution to the development of the concept of the rule of law remains unquestioned—it was the first document to limit the power of a monarch and make him subject to the law. The legacy of the Magna Carta lives today in the writ of habeas corpus, in the fifth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (The story of the Magna Carta didn’t end at Runnymede. In August 1215, Pope Innocent III issued a papal bull declaring the Magna Carta null and void. King John died the next year of dysentery while fighting against France. His son, King Henry III, issued a substantially revised version of the Magna Carta in 1225.)
Bicentennial of the Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815. Napoleon Bonaparte was perhaps the greatest military and political genius of all time. Yet his defeat in battle on June 18, 1815 gave the world the metaphor for ultimate failure: Waterloo. That Napoleon even met the combined forces of Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Prussia on the plains just south of Brussels was remarkable. A little more than a year earlier he had been deposed as emperor of France and sent into exile at Elba. But in February 1815, he slipped by his guards, evaded a British naval patrol, and landed in France. Within a month he returned to Paris in triumph, forcing the new French king to flee the country and ushering in the Hundred Days. When the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw and raised the so-called Seventh Coalition to drive him from power, Napoleon concluded that his only chance to defeat the much larger forces arrayed against him was to go on the attack. He met his adversaries at Waterloo. The result was a crushing defeat at the hands of armies led by Britain’s Duke of Wellington and Prussia’s General Gebhard von Blücher. After his surrender, Napoleon was exiled once again, this time to St. Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic more than 1,200 miles off the coast of southern Africa. He died there in 1821. He was fifty-one.
Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Battle of Britain, July 10, 1940. Britain’s prospects looked dim as the summer of 1940 began. The Phoney War had given way to the German blitzkrieg in May. France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway all fell with alarming speed. The British army had barely escaped annihilation after its “miracle” evacuation from Dunkirk. On June 18, the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill told his countrymen, “The Battle of France is over: the Battle of Britain is about to begin.” Churchill was right; three weeks later the German Luftwaffe began bombing England. Adolf Hitler hoped that the Battle of Britain would give Germany air superiority, thereby allowing German troops to invade. Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) fought back with valor. Both sides suffered great losses: the RAF lost 1,012 aircraft and 537 airmen, and the Luftwaffe lost 1,918 aircraft and 2,662 airmen. By August 1940, it was clear that the Germans could not achieve air superiority. That did not mean, however, that London and other British cities were safe from aerial assault. The bombing campaign known as “the Blitz” began that month and continued through May 1941, killing thousands of British citizens. The war dragged on for four more years and many more casualties. But Britain had survived its moment of ultimate peril.
Twentieth Anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre, July 11, 1995. The Soviet Union collapsed peacefully when the Cold War ended; Yugoslavia did not. In 1993, the fighting within the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia Herzegovina led the United Nations to declare a “safe zone” for Bosnian Muslims around the town of Srebrenica. UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali asked for 37,000 peacekeepers to patrol the safe haven, but member states provided only 7,600 troops. Those forces soon dwindled, and by July 1995 only a few hundred Dutch peacekeepers remained. They stepped aside as the Bosnian Serb forces attacked Srebrenica on July 6. The Bosnian Serb Army, led by General Ratko Mladić, sought to punish Bosnian Muslims for attacks on Serb communities and to exact revenge (so they said) for the Ottoman empire’s ruthless suppression of a Serb uprising in 1804. Bosnian Serbs entered Srebrenica on July 11 and killed almost eight thousand Bosnian Muslims (mostly men and boys) in a span of ten days. NATO responded with air strikes in August, but they were too late. Twenty years later, bodies of victims are still being found, and the effort to get justice for the victims and the survivors continues. Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadžić and General Mladić are on trial at The Hague for war crimes. Families of the victims have won cases in Dutch courts on the grounds that Dutch peacekeepers failed in their obligation to protect Bosnian Muslims. Despite these efforts, ethnic tensions in Bosnia still run high.
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait, August 2, 1990. On a map, Kuwait looks like a small and inconsequential patch of land. But to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1990, it held great appeal. The Kuwaitis had two things he wanted: oil and access to the Persian Gulf. Iraq was struggling economically in 1990 as it dealt with the consequences of its eight-year-long war with Iran. Hussein had accused Kuwait of stealing from the massive oil field that straddled the Iraq-Kuwait border, driving oil prices down by pumping too much oil, and reneging on promises to forgive the massive debts Iraq had run up fighting Iran. Most experts dismissed Hussein’s threats as posturing. They were wrong. On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded its smaller neighbor. Kuwait quickly surrendered to the Iraqi army, which at the time was the fourth-largest in the world. The UN Security Council ordered Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, and backed up its demands by imposing sanctions. Hussein rebuffed the demands, believing that the sanctions would fail and that no one could evict Iraqi troops from Kuwait by force. He was as wrong as the experts who doubted his threats to invade Kuwait. On January 17, 1991, the United States and its coalition partners, acting pursuant to a UN Security Council resolution passed six weeks earlier, launched Operation Desert Storm. Iraq’s defeat was rapid and decisive. By the end of February, Iraqi troops had fled Kuwait and President George H.W. Bush had declared a ceasefire. Although Bush administration figured that Hussein would soon be pushed from power, he held on for another dozen years, paving the way for a second U.S. war against Iraq in 2003.
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of German Reunification, October 3, 1990. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin wall fell. But an equally important moment for Germany came eleven months later when the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) were reunited for the first time since 1945. It was not obvious that Germany’s neighbors would allow the country to reunite. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher bitterly opposed German reunification. So too did French President Francois Mitterrand. Nonetheless, U.S. President George H.W. Bush helped champion negotiations among East and West Germany, Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States. The result was the “Two-Plus-Four Treaty,” which was signed on September 12, 1990. It allowed for Germany’s reunification on October 3. Elections were held two months later. Germans now call October 3 the Day of German Unity. It will no doubt be a cause for extra celebration in 2015.
Other significant historical anniversaries in 2015. January 2 marks the centennial of the first use of lethal chemical weapons in World War I. January 8 is the bicentennial of the Battle of New Orleans, which came after the war that prompted it ended. January 27 is the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. February 21 is the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. March 20 is the twentieth anniversary of the Tokyo sarin gas attack. April 9 is the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. April 15 is the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. April 19 is the twentieth anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. May 8 is the seventieth anniversary of V-E Day, the end of World War II in Europe. May 14 is the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the Warsaw Pact. August 6 is the fiftieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. August 6 is the seventieth anniversary of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and August 9 is the seventieth anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki. August 14 marks the seventieth anniversary of V-J Day, Japan’s unconditional surrender in World War II. August 29 is the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. September 2 is the seventy-fifth anniversary of the destroyers-for-bases deal between the United States and Great Britain. October 3 is the twentieth anniversary of O.J. Simpson’s acquittal for murder. November 5 is the seventy-fifth anniversary of FDR’s election to a third presidential term, the first and only time that has happened in American history. December 1 marks the sixtieth anniversary of Rosa Parks’ refusal to move to the back of the bus.
On the lighter side. January 6 is the fortieth anniversary of the first episode of Wheel of Fortune. January 31 marks the seventieth anniversary of the mailing of the first Social Security check. March 2 is the fiftieth anniversary of the U.S. premiere of The Sound of Music. April 23 marks thirty years since the introduction of New Coke, which didn’t go so well. May 6 is the centennial of Babe Ruth’s first home run, which he hit in the Polo Grounds off of Yankee right-hander Jack Warhop. July 3 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the premiere of Back to the Future. July 17 is the sixtieth anniversary of the opening of Disneyland. August 15 is the fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles playing Shea Stadium. September 13 marks thirty years since the release of the first Super Mario Bros game for Nintendo. September 17 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the debut of Hogan’s Heroes, a sitcom with an unlikely setting, a German prisoner-of-war camp. September 18 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the debut of I Dream of Jeannie, a sitcom that combined astronauts and a beautiful genie. October 11 is the fortieth anniversary of the premiere of Saturday Night Live. October 14 marks fifty years since the conclusion of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ four-games-to-three-victory over the Minnesota Twins in the World Series, the last World Series in which the winning pitcher in every game threw a complete game. October 20 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the release of the third and final volume in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King. December 9 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of A Charlie Brown Christmas. December 18 marks the centennial of Woodrow Wilson’s marriage to Edith Bolling Galt, the last time an American president got married while in office. December 22 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of Dr. Zhivago, which is the eighth highest grossing film of all time on an inflation-adjusted basis.
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If there are any anniversaries I’ve missed, please post in the comments below.
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Thank you to everyone for your very kind words and support. It has really given me a sense of hope and pride in our community. Thank you for the awards, I certainly wasn't expecting any of that when I started writing this! Thank you to the mods for allowing this post to stay and especially to all of you thus far for their contributions. We will get through this lockdown together (whilst remaining very separated) and be stronger for it.
Firstly, thank you for being so proactive in your child's education. I understand that things are very difficult for everyone right now.
I've been teaching Primary for 10 years or so and currently doing supply work. Well, I was. The school dropped me due to the schools closing. Feel free to reply / message me if you need a hand with anything.
Some resources in no particular order (many of them are free, I have only accessed them as a teacher, they should be fine for parents. Some resources might be worth contacting your school to implement on a larger scale):
Ones that I have used personally:

• Twinkl - many resources, some of them free. Very pretty, many of them are differentiated.
• TES - resources made by teachers. Many of them include lesson plans. Vast majority are free.
• EpicReading - Reading books for kids, library has their own books as well as some more well known ones. I used it myself for remote reading with my classes.
• TeachersPet - similar to Twinkl
• TeachersPayTeachers - similar to TES
• PrimaryResources - similar to TES
• WhiteRoseMaths - Maths resources. Lesson plans, videos, worksheets. The home learning section is really good.
• NumeracyNinjas - Quick maths skills - it is aimed at KS3, but I use it in UKS2 no problem.
• OakNationalAcademy - Entire lessons, resources, teacher made instructional videos. All done, day by day for you. If you are struggling to think of what to teach and when, this is a really good place to start!
• BBCBitesize- similar to the above.
• TeachHandwriting- Great resources to help with handwriting. Worksheets, online videos. Covers most schools type of handwriting - you will need to check which kind of handwriting your school does (should be on the policies section of your schools website).
• Your local library might have online resources available.
• Mindfullness colourings for children are great.
• JoeWicks - did an entire PE series last summer. If you haven't already, it's worth a look. They are about 30 minutes long. I think he might be doing it again this time around...
• MathsFactor - Carol Vorderman's maths. Not used it myself.
• NRICH - Loads of maths games focusing on skills (more than just games)
• TopMarks - similar to the above.
• TheRoyalInstitution - science experiments that you can do at home.
• Scratch- Great, free coding website. Loads of examples. Can be used to simply make a sprite move, all the way to creating entire games.
• Kodu - Fun way to learn coding
• TimesTableRockStars - Lots of schools using this for children to practise their times tables.
• GoNoodle - mindfulness, yoga, PE, educational songs.
• HamiltonTrust - lots of resources for English, Maths, Science. They also have some home learning packs.
• Read Write Inc. Phonics - really effective phonics for children. It is the best scheme for phonics that I have personally used. They are doing daily phonics lessons on their YouTube channel although apparently they are only staying up for 24 hours! There is also some information for parents here - you were most likely taught to read differently, you will need to understand how the children are taught in order to support them.
• JollyPhonics - another scheme which is often used by a lot of schools.
• Kahoot - lots of pre-made free quizzes, you can also create your own. They can be completed by yourself, with people in your household or with the children's friends remotely. Only people with the code can join your quiz, so should be safe.
• Child lead - don't forget - children learn through play. They need time away from their work to play. Playing is still learning. Don't be afraid to not to 'formal' learning and play with them. If they have something they really want to learn about that day, then go for it - it will be so much more powerful and effective when it stems from their own interests - you can easily hit curriculum targets too!

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Links as suggested by others:

• Seneca - KS2, KS3, GCSE & A Levels (not sure I agree with the use of the word "funnest"!)
• FreeCodeCamp - "FreeCodeCamp is used by kids and adults alike to learn web design - HTML, CSS and Javascript. Lessons are broken down into bitesize steps and later challenges, but it's all optional and nothing is locked behind anything else"
• CodeAcademy - Coding for older children.
• PBSKids - Apps for learning about nature, science, engineering, etc...
• CosmicKidsYoga - Yoga which is accessible for younger children. Often based around a theme (Minecraft, Star Wars etc). I've used this before in PE - kids have always enjoyed it.
• CMIT - Huge amount of maths resources from Reception to A-Level.
• MaddieMoate - family science show.
• ReadingEggs - Reading, Maths, games and songs.
• ClassroomSecrets - Range of resources, including home learning and a timetable to stick to.
• PopUK - Not personally used it, but a lot of schools are using it for singing (might not seem important, but singing is often a part of children's daily worship (daily worship is not necessarily religious))
• Letters&Sounds - phonics learning which you can do at home.
• PhonicsBloom - online games to help with phonics.
• PhonicsPlay - Phonics home learning, they have very kindly enabled free access for all of their content.
• ICTGames - Maths and English games - including spelling, writing, phonics
• ProofIndex- maths resources provided by mike_the_tutor
• ​

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Important updates / other info:

• BBC from 11th Jan: CBBC are planning a three hour block of Primary programming from 9am - live lessons etc... BBC Two will have learning for Secondary pupils. All will be available on BBC Red Button / iPlayer as well. Hoping that this will be really good, I understand that a lot of people are finding the structure and timetable of a day challenging, this should help!
• For schools: You can request more devices for children who are unable to access learning here.
• There is help available for those with limited internet access.

I've put it as a quick Google Sheets, just in case that makes it easier to find again for you all!
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I'll add to this list as I cast my mind back to anything else that I think is useful, but hopefully these will get you started.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/science/chemical_material_behavioucompounds_mixtures/activity/
For example... the one that used to be here.
Seems like the disappeared a few years ago (flash based)... yet you can play flash games with elmedia player.

When I was a kid, I was top of the class, analytical beyond my age, and everyone said I was going to oxbridge. As time went on, my ability to compute just fizzled away. When I was 11 and did my SATs test, I got 100%, top of my school year. In GCSEs, I got a B. I also fluctuated between top and middle class. In AS level, I dropped chemistry because I struggled with the maths. Last year, my first year at university (I study biology), I was noticeably struggling in lab sessions when we did post lab calculations etc. Everyone around me was finding it easy, and my partner would have to help me with things like dilution factors and percentages, because the information just seemed to bounce off my brain back onto the page. This problem is one of the contributing factors to me dropping out of uni because I had to be tackled off a train track. I just felt so stupid. The only thing I've ever been good at and it's gone.
My brain is just so foggy and I can't 'see' things like I used to. It feels like I can't hold more than two numbers in my head at once to manipulate them around into sums and equations. I looked back at stuff I did when I was 13-16, and I didn't understand even the basics. When I'm trying to do percentages in my day to day life, I have no idea how to calculate them, and I find myself googling it and ending up on bbc bitesize. BBC. Bitesize. On the KS3 section. It takes me hours to read a page of information and understand it. Even with university disability help, like extra time in exams etc, it doesn't make an overall difference. I've spent days intensely learning new and old stuff, but I haven't been able to get the hang of it.
It gets a little better when my energy is better. When I'm excited, or high, I can reach about my 14 year old standard.
It seems to have gone as my mental health became worse, and especially as I've started medication. But when I stop medication, even if I've tapered off with medical supervision, or come off something with a super low half life, my mental health gets dangerous. Ive been on 8 different medications now for depression/anxiety, a mix of SSRIs, SNRIs, benzos and quetiapine. Nothing has helped the brain fog. I wish I'd never started, they don't even help, just cause problems, but now I'm reliant on them. The only thing that's ever helped was ritalin that I got in central america and took for a few weeks (you could buy it from pharmacies, or at least the one I went to.) My brain was even so unfogged that my short sightedness went, confirming my theory that my eyes can't focus properly because theyre too tired. But alas, I have no hope of ever getting much access in the UK.
Has anyone struggled with such a decline and still completed a degree that has an element of maths to it? Or struggled with antidepressants affecting their ability while studying? The thing I fear most, is that it's not the antidepressants fault, and this is permanent.
Edit: does anyone have recommendations for cheap textbooks that explain basic biomaths concepts?

1. Given that a desert is defined as a region receiving less than 10 inches of precipitation per year, Antarctica is technically a desert!
2. In fact, contrary to popular belief, the Antarctic Polar Desert is actually the world's largest desert, not the Sahara.
3. It stretches approximately 5.4 million square miles — talk about a vast desert!
4. Even though Antarctica is home to almost 90% of Earth's fresh water, as little as two to eight inches of precipitation falls there each year.
5. Temperatures don't often fall below freezing in hot deserts, but the lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was in Antarctica at a bone-chilling -135.8°F.
6. Even on the warmest days in central Antarctica, temperatures reach an average of only -22°F. Toasty!
7. Contrary to ~typical~ deserts, Antarctica actually experiences a period of perpetual darkness in the winter!
8. Oppositely, in the summer months, Antarctica experiences a period of perpetual light, receiving more direct sunlight than the Sahara desert during that time period!
9. Antarctica is the driest and windiest place on Earth, with winds whipping as fast as 200 mph!
10. The Sahara can support various trees and shrubs, but Antarctica's barren lands can sustain only moss, lichen, and algae species.
11. Historically, the soils of Antarctica contain the least diverse organisms in the world.
12. While a ~typical~ desert is covered in golden sand, Antarctica is covered in ice 1.5+ miles thick!
13. Antarctica technically has a residential population of zero, while the Sahara desert is home to approximately 2.5 million people.
14. The land of ice is home to the world's southernmost active volcano, Mount Erebus.
15. So before you assume all deserts look like this...
16. ...remember the mother of all deserts actually looks like this!

Link to article

I found the first ridiculous claim that "religion is the cause of war" from this publication on Academia.edu:
http://www.academia.edu/16479644/Religion_is_the_Cause_of_War
The author makes the claim that most sources of war originate from religion with the following paragraph:

Human life and social structuring always derive their momentum from the belief mechanism. With belief, humanity establishes astonishing structures, civilizations as well as self-destruction. Although using belief mechanism is an essential fundamental formation of societies and civilizations, unintelligent use of belief may cause relentless warfare and self-destruction. This type of unintelligent use of belief stagnant belief system puts humanity to high risk of suffering and pain. Therefore, belief mechanism must evolve to acknowledgement and must be used intelligently for the prosperity of humanity. Religion has been using this mechanism for many centuries and causing mass amounts of conflicts between human societies. Most sources of war originate itself from structured religion and belief system, what we call religion.

This is in fact a common claim of atheists and anti-religionists. The atheist blogger Austine Cline on about.com, writing for atheism also agrees with this preposterous claim about religion, writing the following for a list of books he uses to support his argument:

Religious leaders normally argue that religion is a force for good and love in the world. Yet, at the same time, we see religion regularly used for war, mass murder, terrorism, and even genocide.

The claim that religion is the cause of most wars and suffering in the world is also a Google suggestion for when you type in "Religion is" which shows that it is something many people consider to be true.
http://i.imgur.com/7hyLway.jpg
Is religion really the main cause of war and most suffering in the world? It's easy to see why atheists and anti-religionists might think that way when you hear of all the Islamic terrorists doing bad things and when you look at history and see the bad that Catholic Church did with the Inquisition, the Witch Hunts and the persecution of Galileo and others the Church deemed to be heretics. However a through examination of history reveals that that most of causes of wars and suffering are in fact secular, even the so-called "religious wars" that were The Crusades.
Let's first address the claim that religion causes most wars and look at the actual statistics throughout history to refute this nonsense.
In the book, The Encyclopaedia of Wars, the historian Alan Axelrod examines wars, revolutions and conflicts since 3,500 BCE. Recorded in the book are a total of 1763 wars and out of these wars, only 123 are classified as having a religious cause. That's less than 7% of all wars since 3,500 BCE so the remaining 1640 wars all had a secular cause.
At this point, I have seen atheists and anti-religionists claim that the percentage of wars caused by religion don't matter but the death toll does, ending with them claiming that the religious wars have caused more bloodshed and deaths than any other wars. This too is an erroneous claim that ignores the facts.
In the historical book, "Parallel Universal History, being an outline of the history and biography of the world. Divided into periods" Philip Alexander Prince on page 207 estimates The Crusades to have caused around two millions deaths. In comparison, the secular war of WW2 is estimated to have caused around 50 to 80 million deaths. The Crusades pales in comparison.
And in truth, The Crusades - whilst having a religious premise - in fact were caused by political reasons and for power. The Seljurk Turks were expanding their empire towards Constantinople, with Emperor Alexios I fearing the advance, he requested aid from the Catholic Church and The Pope, who at the time, had strong influence across Europe. This combined with stories of Christian pilgrims being ill-treated and even butchered by the Muslims in the Middle East gave grounds for The Crusades but in fact the main reason was to stop the advancing Seljurk Turks.
The historian Giles Constable argues that while some soldiers joined the Crusade for religious reasons, others went for their own reasons including for personal gain.
In the book "The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World" Professor Roy Mottahedeh and the Greek Byzantinist Angeliki Laiou point out the same fact as I, stating that while the contemporaries of The Crusades reasoned that it was a religious war commanded by God, the war was in fact mainly due to the expanding empire of the Seljurk Turks who had already displaced many Christians from the Middle East. They also correctly point out that contemporary historians also recorded this fact:

This view [crusades being a ideological driven war] is now common in works addressed to the general public, including popular presentations and movies. A leaflet distributed in Clermont during the conference held in 1995 to commemorate the summons to the First Crusade was headed “The Crusades—did God will it?” echoing the crusading cry of “Deus le volt.” It went on to ask “Can the Church memorialize the Crusades without asking forgiveness?” and called on the pope to deny that any war can be holy and that sins can be forgiven by killing pagans. According to this view, the crusaders were inspired by greed and religious fanaticism and the Muslims were the innocent victims of expansionist aggression. Many scholars today, however, reject this hostile judgement and emphasize the defensive character of the crusades as they were seen by contemporaries, who believed that Christianity was endangered by enemies who had already overrun much of the traditional Christian world, including Jerusalem and the Holy Land, and who threatened to take over the remainder. Almost all the historians and chroniclers of the expeditions that were later called the First Crusade considered them a response to the Muslim threats to Christian holy places and peoples in the east. They wrote from different points of view, however, and used varying terminology and biblical passages.

So yes while the Crusades may have been driven by an ideological cause, the actual cause of the war was in defence of land. These were not wars caused by religions. Pope Urban II's desire to help the Byzantine Empire was also driven mostly by his desire to increase the political authority of The Church and its power. The Catholic Church also used the wars in an attempt to usurp power from the Byzantine Empire and successfully did that in 1204 with the Siege of Constantinople which led to the fall of Byzantine Empire and emergence of the Catholic Church as the sole great power throughout Europe. This fact seems to be forgotten by the anti-religionists and atheists who fail to understand that at this time, The Catholic Church wasn't just a religious organization but a political one too, one that had powers over countries, kings and queens and one that wanted to build a united Church-state with The Pope as the head. This would become known as Christendom.
Sources:
http://www.historytoday.com/jonathan-phillips/crusades-complete-history
http://www.doaks.org/resources/publications/doaks-online-publications/crusades-from-the-perspective-of-byzantium-and-the-muslim-world/cr01.pdf
http://www.history.com/topics/crusades
http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-crusades-from-start-to-finish.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/history/middle_ages/the_crusades/revision/4/
What about the Inquisition then? Well the actual death toll is not the millions anti-religionists exaggerate. The actual statistics are far lower than that. According to Professor Agostino Borromeo, a historian of religions, only 1% of the 125,000 people tried by church were executed. That's approximately 1250 people. This is according to documents from the Vatican archives relating to the trails of the Spanish Inquisition.
The book, The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe (Second Edition), written by the historian Brian P. Levack states also that only a few thousand were actually executed by the Inquisition and not millions. The archives of the Suprema (documents which record the judgements between 1540 and 1700), contained within the National Historical Archive of Spain, record 1604 executions.
Juan Antonio Llorente, a contemporary historian during the time of the Spanish Inquisition and General Secretary to the Inquisition, estimates that approximately 323,362 people were burned by the Spanish Inquisition from 1479 to 1817. This is of course a much higher count than the couple of thousands estimated by modern historians but still a far cry from the millions that anti-religionists, anti-Catholics and atheists often exaggerate.
Llorente's numbers estimates are in dispute however. Henry Charles Lea, a major historian of the Spanish Inquisition, criticized the estimates of Llorente, putting it down to guess-work and pointing out the discrepancy between the information Llorente produced. He concludes with saying that the numbers of Llorente's are largely exaggerated.

Before dismissing the impression produced by the severity of the Inquisition it will not be amiss to attempt some conjecture as to the totality of its operations, especially as regards the burnings, which naturally affected more profoundly the imagination. There is no question that the number of these has been greatly exaggerated in popular belief, an exaggeration to which Llorente has largely contributed by his absurd method of computation, on an arbitrary assumption of a certain annual average for each tribunal in successive periods. It is impossible now to reconstruct the statistics of the Inquisition, especially during its early activity, but some general conclusions can be formed from the details accessible as to a few tribunals.
The burnings without doubt were numerous during the first few years, through the unregulated ardor of inquisitors, little versed in the canon law, who seem to have condemned right and left, on flimsy evidence, and without allowing their victims the benefit of applying for reconciliation, for, while there might be numerous negativos, there certainly were few pertinacious impenitents. The discretion allowed to them to judge as to the genuineness of conversion gave a dangerous power, which was doubtless abused by zealots, and the principle that imperfect confession was conclusive of impenitence added many to the list of victims, while the wholesale reconciliations under the Edicts of Grace afforded an abundant harvest to be garnered under the rule condemning relapse. In the early years, moreover, the absent and the dead contributed with their effigies largely to the terrible solemnities of the quemadero.
Modern writers vary irreconcileably in their estimates, influenced more largely by subjective considerations than by the imperfect statistics at their command. Rodrigo coolly asserts as a positive fact that those who perished in Spain at the stake for heresy did not amount to 400 and that these were voluntary victims, who refused to retract their errors.[1145] Father Gams reckons 2000 for the period up to the death of Isabella, in 1504, and as many more from that date up to 1758.[1146] On the other hand, Llorente calculates that, up to the end of Torquemada's activity, there had been condemned 105,294 persons, of whom 8800 were burnt alive, 6500 in effigy and 90,004 exposed to public penance, while, up to 1524, the grand totals amounted to 14,344, 9372 and 195,937.[1147] Even these figures are exceeded by Amador de los Rios, who is not usually given to exaggeration. He assumes that, up to 1525, when the Moriscos commenced to suffer as heretics, the number of those burnt alive amounted to 28,540, of those burnt in effigy to 16,520 and those penanced to 303,847, making a total of 348,907 condemnations for Judaism.[1148] Don Melgares Marin, whose familiarity with the documents is incontestable, tells us that, in Castile, during 1481, more than 20,000 were reconciled under Edicts of Grace, more than 3000 were penanced with the sanbenito, and more than 4000 were burnt, but he adduces no authorities in support of the estimate.[1149]
The only contemporary who gives us figures for the whole of Spain is Hernando de Pulgar, secretary of Queen Isabella. His official position gave him facilities for obtaining information, and his scarcely veiled dislike for the Inquisition was not likely to lead to underrating its activity. He states at 15,000 those who had come in under Edicts of Grace, and at 2000 those who were burnt, besides the dead whose bones were exhumed in great quantities; the number of penitents he does not estimate. Unluckily, he gives no date but, as his Chronicle ends in 1490, we may assume that to be the term comprised.[1150] With some variations his figures were adopted by subsequent writers.[1151] Bernáldez only makes the general statement that throughout Spain an infinite number were burnt and condemned and reconciled and imprisoned, and of those reconciled many relapsed and were burnt.[1152]
The total of Llorente's extravagant guesses, from the foundation of the Inquisition to 1808, is:
Burnt in person 31,912 Burnt in effigy 17,659 Heavily penanced 291,450 ------- 341,021
Hist. crít, IX, 233.
This is slightly modified by Gallois in his abridgement of Llorente's work (Histoire abregée de la Inquisition d'Espagne, 6^{e} Ed., p. 351-2, Paris, 1828). He gives the figures:
Burnt alive 34,658 Burnt in effigy 18,049 Condemned to galleys or prison 288,214 ------- 340,921
It will be observed that Gallois unscrupulously classifies all personal relaxations as burnings alive and all penances as galleys or prison.
[1148] Hist. de los Judíos de España, III, 492-3.
[1149] Procedimientos de la Inquisicion, I, 116-17 (Madrid, 1886).
[1150] Pulgar, Cronica, P. II, cap. lxxvii.
[1151] L. Marinæi Siculi de Reb. Hispan., Lib. XIX.--Illescas, Hist. Pontifical, P. II, Lib. VI, c. xix.--Mariana, Hist. de España, Lib. XXIV, cap. xvii.--Páramo, p. 139.--Garibay, Comp. Hist., Lib. XVIII, cap. xvii.
[1152] Hist. de los Reyes Católicos, cap. xliv.
[1153] Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1524, n. 3--Varflora, Compendio de Sevilla, P. II, cap. 1.
[1154] Bernáldez, ubi sup.
[1155] Lalaing, Voyage de Philippe le Beau (Gachard, Voyages des Souverains, I, 203).
[1156] Zurita, Añales, Lib. XX, cap. xlix. The fact that so careful an historian as Zurita, who sought everywhere for documentary evidence, had no official statistics to cite shows that none such existed in the Suprema relating to the early years of the Inquisition.
[1157] Relazioni Venete, Serie I, T. II, p. 40.
[1158] Archivo hist. nacional, Inq. de Toledo, Leg. 262.--It is possible that these figures may be only of residents of Ciudad Real. Páramo (p. 170) states the numbers for the tribunal, during its two years of existence, at 52 relaxations in person, 220 in effigy and 183 reconciliations. The record just cited gives for Ciudad Real, from 1484 to 1531, 113 relaxed in person, 129 in effigy, 16 reconciled, 11 penanced, 19 absolved, 3 discharged on bail and 8 of which the sentence is not stated--all, apparently, residents of the town.
[1159] Relacion de la Inquisicion Toledana (Boletin, XI, 292 sqq).
The Córdova tribunal also burned 90 residents of Chillon, who had been duped by the prophetess of Herrera (Ibidem, p. 308).
[1160] Hist. crit., IX, 210.
[1161] See Appendix of Vol. I. It must be borne in mind that, in the early years, small autos were held elsewhere than in the centres. Thus, in the Libro Verde there are allusions to them in Barbastro, Huesca, Monzon, Lérida and Tamarit (Revista de España, CVI, 250-1, 263-4, 266). The aggregate for these, however, would make little difference in the totals.
[1162] Libro Verde (Revista de España, CVI, 570-83). The relaxations by years were:
1483--1 1495--9 1512--4 1542--1 1485--4 1496--1 1520--1 1543--1 1486--26 1497--18 1521--2 1546--2 1487--25 1498--2 1522--1 1549--1 1488--13 1499--13 1524--1 1561--4 1489--2 1500--5 1526--1 1563--1 1490--1 1502--2 1528--2 1565--1 1491--10 1505--1 1534--1 1566--1 1492--15 1506--5 1535--1 1567--2 1493--11 1510--1 1537--1 1574--2 1494--1 1511--5 1539--1
The number in 1486-7-8 is attributable to the assassination of San Pedro Arbués.
[1163] Carbonell de Gestis Hæret. (Col. de Doc. de la C. de Aragon, XXVII, XXVIII).
[1164] Archivo hist. nacional, Inq. de Valencia, Leg. 98, 300.
[1165] Cronicon de Valladolid (Col. de Doc. inéd., XIII, 176-9, 187).
[1166] Archivo de Simancas, Inq., Lib. 595.
[1167] MSS. of Library of Univ. of Halle, Yc, 20, T. I.
[1168] Archivo hist. nacional, Inq. de Toledo, Leg. 1.
[1169] Archivo de Simancas, Inq., Lib. 1020.
[1170] Royal Library of Berlin, Qt. 9548.
To illustrate the discrepancy between the facts as stated above and the reckless computations of Llorente, which have been so largely accepted, it may not be amiss to compare the facts with the corresponding figures resulting from his system of calculation, for the tribunals and periods named:
Records. Llorente. Toledo, 1483-1501. Relaxed in person 297 666 Relaxed in effigy 600 433 Imprisoned, about 200} Reconciled under edicts 5200} 6,200 Do. 1575-1610. Relaxed in person 11 252 Relaxed in effigy 15 120 Penanced 904 1,396 Do. 1648-1794. Relaxed in person 8 297 Relaxed in effigy 63 129 Penanced 1094 1,188 up to 1746. Saragossa, 1485-1502. Relaxed in person 124 584 Relaxed in effigy 32 392 Penanced 458 7,004 Barcelona, 1488-98. Relaxed in person 23 432 Relaxed in effigy 430 316 Imprisoned 116} Reconciled under edicts 304} 5,122 Valencia, 1485-1592. Relaxed in person 643 1,538 Relaxed in effigy 479 869 Tried 3104 16,677 penanced. Valladolid, 1485-92. Relaxed in person 50 424 Relaxed in effigy 6 312 Penanced ? 3,884 Majorca, 1488-1691. Relaxed in person 139 1,778 Relaxed in effigy 482 978 Penanced 975 17,861 All tribunals, 1721-27. Relaxed in person 77 238 Relaxed in effigy 74 119 Penanced 811 1,428
It will thus be seen how entirely fallacious was the guess-work on which Llorente based his system.
An even more conclusive comparison is furnished by the little tribunal of the Canaries. After 1524, Llorente includes it among the tribunals by which he multiplies the number of yearly victims assigned to each. He thus makes it responsible, from first to last, for 1118 relaxations in person and 574 in effigy. Millares (Historia de la Inquisicion en las Islas Canaries, III, 164-8) has printed the official list of the quemados during the whole career of the tribunal, and they amount in all to eleven burnt in person and a hundred and seven in effigy. The number of the latter is accounted for by the fact that, to render its autos interesting, it was often in the habit of prosecuting in absentia Moorish and negro slaves who escaped to Africa after baptism and who thus were constructively relapsed.

Whatever the truth, there is no reliable historical source citing the numbers as being millions.
Sources:
The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe by Brian Levack
Letters from the Inquisition Page 11 and 12
A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 4 by Henry Charles Lea http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44209/44209-8.txt
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jun/16/artsandhumanities.internationaleducationnews
The Inquisition and Crusades are often cited as "wars which caused genocides, resulting in millions of deaths, all which were supported by Christians and The Church" however when examining the facts as we have above, we find that this is simply untrue. As I have shown above, The Crusades had a secular cause, with religion simply being used as a motivation and excuse. The Inquisition was of course religiously caused but the death toll simply does not amount to the millions commonly claimed by anti-religionists.
When we look at history, we find that most wars were secular in nature and that the highest death tolls came from these wars. The Guinness World Records cite WW2 as having the highest death toll from any recorded war in human history with an estimate of 56.4 million killed.

By far the most costly war in terms of human life was World War II (1939–45), in which the total number of fatalities, including battle deaths and civilians of all countries, is estimated to have been 56.4 million, assuming 26.6 million Soviet fatalities and 7.8 million Chinese civilians were killed. The country that suffered most in proportion to its population was Poland, with 6,028,000 or 17.2 per cent of its population of 35,100,000 killed. In the Paraguayan war of 1864–70 against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, Paraguay's population was reduced from 407,000 to 221,000 survivors, of whom fewer than 30,000 were adult males.

In The Great Book of Horrible Things, the author, Matthew White using 377 books and 183 scholarly articles ranks the "100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History" with the top 29 with the highest death tolls being the following:

1. World War II (Worldwide 1939-45)
2. Genghis Khan (Asia 1206-27)
3. Mao Zedong (China 1949-75)
4. British India Famines (1769, 1876, 1896, 1943)
5. Fall of the Ming Dynasty (China 1635-62)
6. Taiping Rebellion (China 1850-64)
7. Stalin (Soviet Union 1928-53)
8. Mideast Slave Trade (ca. 700-1900)
9. Tamerlane (Central Asia 1370-1405)
10. Atlantic Slave Trade (1452-1807)
11. First World War (Europe 1914-18)
12. Conquest of the Americas (after 1492)
13. An Lushan Revolt (China 755-763)
14. Xin Dynasty (China 9-24)
15. Congo Free State (1886-1908)
16. Russian Civil War (1918-22)
17. Thirty Years War (Germany 1618-1648)
18. Fall of the Yuan Dynasty (China 1358)
19. Fall of Rome (Europe 395-455)
20. Chinese Civil Wars (1927-37, 1946-49)
21. The Mahdi (Sudan 1881-98 )
22. Time of Troubles (Russia 1598-1613)
23. Aurangzeb (1681-1707)
24. Vietnam War (1960-1975)
25. Three Kingdoms (China: 189-280)
26. Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815)
27. Second Congo War (1998-2002)
28. Hundred Years War (1337-1453)
29. Gladiatorial Games (Rome: 264 BCE-435 CE)

Out of them, only two had a religious cause. Meanwhile, Mao Zedong and Stalin, both communists, have a combined total of causing 60 million deaths by their regimes according to the book. That's 58 million more than the 2 million estimated to have died in the crusades. Interestingly this number has been disputed with other historians claiming Stalin alone killed over 60 million people with Mao Zedong's regime being responsible for a further 45 million deaths. Mao's and Stalin's communist regimes are also notable in that they were anti-religious. Regardless of the correct numbers, it is agreed by all historians that these two regimes were the most bloodiest in human history.
There have been actual historians who have disputed claims made in Matthew White's book, these disputes however tie into the numbers of deaths caused by these conflicts and war, all agree that the death tolls for the conflicts were all high.
The information we have from all this suggests that religion is certainly not the major cause of war and is far from being the cause of most suffering in the world. Actual history shows that politics, war over land and totalitarian regimes have been the cause of the most suffering and deaths in the world.
From 2000 to 2014, they have been over 11,000 murders in England and Wales combined. The majority of these murders were for personal reasons. Personal conflicts have also been cited as the biggest cause for murders in America. In 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took an in-depth look at homicides in America and concluding from the information the following:

For homicides and suicides, relationship problems, interpersonal conflicts, mental-health problems, and recent crises were among the primary precipitating factors."

According to the same organization, 50,000 people die annually in the U.S with the majority (60%) being due to suicide and the second majority being homicides and legal intervention (24%). The organization states that the statistics show that the majority of homicides were preceded by arguments, interpersonal conflicts or were in conjunction with another crime.

For 2009, a total of 15,981 fatal incidents involving 16,418 deaths were captured by NVDRS in the 16 states included in this report. The majority (60.6%) of deaths were suicides, followed by homicides and deaths involving legal intervention (i.e., deaths caused by police and other persons with legal authority to use deadly force, excluding legal executions) (24.7%), deaths of undetermined intent (14.2%), and unintentional firearm deaths (0.5%). Suicides occurred at higher rates among males, non-Hispanic whites, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and persons aged 45–54 years. Suicides occurred most often in a house or apartment and involved the use of firearms. Suicides were preceded primarily by mental health, intimate partner, or physical health problems or by a crisis during the previous 2 weeks. Homicides occurred at higher rates among males and persons aged 20–24 years; rates were highest among non-Hispanic black males. The majority of homicides involved the use of a firearm and occurred in a house or apartment or on a street/highway. Homicides were preceded primarily by arguments and interpersonal conflicts or in conjunction with another crime. Characteristics associated with other manners of death, circumstances preceding death, and special populations also are highlighted in this report.

Now while some out-of-touch with reality atheist or anti-religionist might come now and say "all those committing suicide are bullied victims of Christian persecution in America!!!" the statistics show that the majority of those committing suicide do so because of mental illness. The organization reports the following of suicide:

Precipitating circumstances were known for approximately 90% of suicide decedents. Overall, mental health problems were the most commonly noted circumstance for suicide decedents, with 41.0% described as experiencing a depressed mood at the time of their deaths. Approximately 44.1% were described as having a diagnosed mental health problem; 31.3% were receiving treatment (Table 7). Of those with a diagnosed mental disorder, 74.1% had received a diagnosis of depression/dysthymia, 14.6% bipolar disorder, and 10.6% anxiety disorder (Table 8).

In comparison to these secular murders and suicides, religious honour killings are estimated to be just over 5,000 a year world-wide. This is according to data from Honour Based Violence Awareness Network, an activist organization which exists to record the violence, raise awareness to it and help victims.
The FBI in 2012 released statistics for the U.S where there are 1,340 victims of an anti-religious hate crime. 62.4 percent were victims of an offender’s anti-Jewish bias. 11.6 percent were victims of an anti-Islamic bias. 6.4 percent were victims of an anti-Catholic bias. The lowest victims were atheists at 0.9 percent. The targeting of the Jews and Muslims is also unlikely to do with their religion and more with racism if we go by recent attitudes towards Jews and Muslims.
So while statistics do show there are bad things done in the name of religion such as the honour killings, the statistics for these crimes are very low. Religious extremism and terrorism in this century has been responsible for thousands of deaths too but still, compared to secular conflicts and wars, the death toll of these things is very low. There are more killings done for non-religious reasons. In 14 years alone in the UK and Wales, the number of murder victims surpassed those of the Inquisition, which existed for centuries.
This is of course not mentioning the thousands of rapes committed annually globally. Very few connected to religion and the majority being connected to revenge or personal satisfaction.
Then there's the widespread corruption in governments like China, which results in the persecution of many innocent people. The starving and disease in places like Africa is down to nature and the economical situation there not religion.
What all these statistics, information and facts tell us is that most suffering and conflict in the world is not down to religion at all.
The claim that religion is the cause of war throughout history or that religion is the cause of most suffering and conflict in the world and has always been and that we would be better off without it is nonsense. Those who have this view, quite frankly, are being self-deluded by their emotions and as history and these statistics are testament to, getting rid of religion would not bring about some sort of world-wide peaceful utopia and in fact, little would change. As these statistics, information and facts show, religion is not regularly used at all to start wars or conflicts as commonly claimed by many anti-religionists and some atheists.
Sources:
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-death-toll-from-wars
http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob62.html
http://www.bookofhorriblethings.com/ax01.html
http://www.bookofhorriblethings.com/ax02.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-deaths-usa-idUSTRE64C53R20100513
http://www.citizensreportuk.org/reports/murders-fatal-violence-uk.html
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwmmwr_ss/ss_cvol.html
http://hbv-awareness.com/statistics-data/
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/uchate-crime/2012/topic-pages/victims/victims_final
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/books/the-great-big-book-of-horrible-things-by-matthew-white.html?_r=3&ref=arts&

As always, if you enjoy this, check out /ThisDayInHistory!
16 March

• 597 BCE: Babylonian forces capture Jerusalem as part of Nebuchadnezzar's annexation of the city. This begins the Babylonian Exile.
  
• 934: The independent state of Later Shu is declared, separate from Later Tang. Meng Zhixiang names himself emperor.
  
• 1244: The nine month long Siege of Montsegur ends with more than 200 Cathars being burned as heretics.
  
• 1621: In Plymouth Colony, settlers are astonished to see a Native American walk into their settlement and say "Welcome, Englishman! My name is Samoset!"
  
• 1815: Willem I declares himself king of the Netherlands, becoming the country's first constitutional monarch.
  
• 1861: Edward Clark) becomes governor of Texas after the former governor - Sam Houston - was ousted from office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.
  
• 1926: Robert Goddard successfully launches the first liquid-fueled rocket. This would open many new possibilities for rocketry.
  
• 1968: Between 300 and 500 Vietnamese civilians are killed during the My Lai massacre.
  
• 1988: Oliver North and John Poindexter are indicted as part of the Iran-Contra Affair.
  
• 1988: 5000 people are killed and 10 000 injured after Saddam Hussein drops nerve gas and poison gas on the Kurdish town of Halabja in the worst chemical attack on civilians in history.
  
• 1995: Mississippi ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, the last state to approve of the abolition of slavery.
  

17 March

• 1762: The first St. Patrick's Day parade is held in New York City.
  
• 1860: The First Taranaki War begins as the Maori resist British attempts to impose sovereignty on them.
  
• 1950: Element 98 - Californium - is created at the University of California, Berkeley.
  
• 1963: On Bali, Mount Agung erupts, killing more than 1100 people.
  
• 1969: Golda Meir becomes the first female prime minister of Israel.
  
• 1990: Lithuania remains independent despite the Soviet Union demanding that it knock it off and start behaving itself.
  
• 1992: A suicide car bomb kills 29 people outside the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
  
• 1992: 68.6% of white South Africans vote to end Apartheid.
  

18 March

• 37 CE: Despite expressing otherwise in his will, the Roman Senate declares that the successor to Tiberius will be Caligula.
  
• 1241: Mongols plunder the city of Krakow after the Battle of Chmielnik.
  
• 1644: The Third Anglo-Powhatan War begins between English settlers in Virginia and the Powhatan.
  
• 1915: Turks win at the Battle of Gallipoli.
  
• 1922: The first recorded Bat Mitzvah is held in the US, in New York City.
  
• 1925: The Tri-State Tornado becomes the worst tornado in US history after killing 695 people, injuring 13 000, and causing $17 million in property damage.
  
• 1950: Taiwanese forces invade the Chinese mainland, killing 2500 Chinese forces before being beaten back to Taiwan.
  
• 1962: After eight years of bloodshed, the Evian Accords establish an end to the Algerian War of Independence.
  
• 1965: Alexei Leonov becomes the first person to successfully complete a spacewalk.
  
• 1974: OPEC nations end their embargo against the US, Europe, and Japan, ending the oil crisis.
  

19 March

• 1279: The Mongols win the Battle of Yamen, ending the Song Dynasty.
  
• 1563: The first phase of the French Wars of Religion end with the Edict of Amboise, a document which also grants rights to the Huguenots.
  
• 1865: The Battle of Bentonville begins in Bentonville, North Carolina. It would be one of the last major battles of the US Civil War, and its loss leads to the Confederate surrender.
  
• 1895: French engineers Auguste and Louis Lumiere record the first footage with a cinematograph.
  
• 1918: The US creates time zones and approves daylight savings time.
  
• 1941: The Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black unit of the Army Air Corps is created.
  
• 1944: Nazi forces occupy Hungary.
  
• 1962: Bob Dylan releases his first album)
  
• 1977: Marien Ngouabi, president of the Republic of the Congo is assassinated by a suicide commando. Former president Alphonse Massemba-Débat is executed for the assassination a week later.
  
• 1982: Argentine forces land on South Georgia Island, provoking the Falklands War
  

20 March

• 235 CE: Maximinius Thrax becomes the first foreigner to be declared emperor of Rome.
  
• 1602: The Dutch East India Company (VOC) is founded.
  
• 1852: Uncle Tom's Cabin is published, setting off a wave of anti-slavery sentiment.
  
• 1888: The first Romani language operetta - Children of the Forests - is staged at the Maly Theatre in Moscow.
  
• 1916: Einstein's general theory of relativity is published.
  
• 1923: The Arts Club of Chicago becomes an early sponsor of modern art in the US by hosting the first showing of Pablo Picasso's work in the US.
  
• 1933: Dachau Concentration Camp is created on the order of Heinrich Himmler.
  
• 1956: Tunisia gains independence from France.
  
• 1965: Lyndon B. Johnson sends federal troops to Alabama to quell unrest during the civil rights marches.
  
• 1972: The Donegall Street car bombing becomes one of the IRA's first car bombs.
  
• 1985: Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the Iditarod.
  
• 1995: 13 people are killed after Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese religious movement, attacks the Tokyo subway with sarin gas.
  

21 March

• 1788: Most of New Orleans burns in a fire). Cows are quickly acquitted.
  
• 1804: The Napoleonic Code becomes French law.
  
• 1871: Otto von Bismarck becomes Chancellor of Germany. He would be very successful.
  
• 1925: Syngman Rhee is removed from office. However, he would later become the first president of an independent South Korea.
  
• 1952: The first rock-and-roll concert is held in Cleveland, Ohio. Alan Freed is the main performer.
  
• 1960: South African police open fire on protesters, killing 69 people in the Sharpeville Massacre. This would trigger another wave of protests. This event also spurred the ANC to incorporate paramilitary actions.
  
• 1970: The first Earth Day is celebrated in the US.
  
• 1975: The 3000 year old Ethiopian monarchy ends with the overthrow of Haile Selassie by the Derg.
  
• 1980: The US announces a boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow in protest of the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan.
  
• 1986: Debi Thomas becomes the first black woman to win the World Figure Skating Championship.
  
• 1990: Namibia gains its independence from South Africa.
  

22 March

• 1622: 347 English settlers are killed by Algonquians during the Second Anglo-Powhatan War.
  
• 1638: Anne Hutchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent. She would go on to found Portsmouth and become a key figure in the founding of Rhode Island, as well as a key figure in American religious freedom and women's ability to preach in America.
  
• 1713: The Tuscarora War ends, opening up the interior of North Carolina to colonisation.
  
• 1765: The British parliament enacts the Stamp Act on American colonists. This would lead to conflict.
  
• 1829: The London Protocol) establishes the borders of Greece.
  
• 1872: Illinois becomes the first US state to require sexual equality in employment.
  
• 1894: The first finals for the Stanley Cup are played.
  
• 1945: The Arab League, a collection of Arab states bound together by economic interest, is formed.